CaRniVaL

Well, I survived the flu! & to celebrate we decided to get out of the house Saturday night! There was a carnival set up in the parking lot of the mall that Roman would ask to go to every time we drove by, so we decided to make the carnival our destination for the evening. Roman had a BLAST! He rode on all the kiddie rides several times, like:

Fast car!

Caterpillar roller coaster

Helicopter



Jungle gym

Swings

&

Combination of hot air balloon & tea cups
ok, this ride was the only one he didn't really like. & it was hilarious!
He actually yelled, "Mom, help me!" at one point, so we intervened & had them stop the ride.

 So where was Sterling this whole time, you ask? Just watching all the action, content as he can be!

Man, Anthon is so HOT!

 & we had a little impromptu dance party

Isn't he darling?! Such a happy little guy!

 We ended the night by playing a couple Carni games- the pop a balloon w/ a dart game & the toss a ping pong ball into a fish bowl game. Roman won a little stuffed dog at the balloon dart game & won a fish at the ping pong ball game.

 He was pretty stoked about the fish!!

& I'm happy to report that it's actually still alive! We were sure we'd find it belly up the next morning, but it's still going strong :)

Sweet Little Reminders

I've had the flu since Saturday night. My mom has been in the hospital with complications from the flu since Friday. Roman has a horrible cough & runny nose since this afternoon, so I'm afraid he's coming down with it too. Things have been pretty grim around here this week and tonight was no exception... Anthon was gone all day at work & all night at school (he still isn't home, FYI. Poor guy) and I didn't feel like doing anything but laying in bed all day! But I had 2 whinny, grouchy kids that couldn't have that, so I decided to fold the 2 loads of laundry Anthon had washed & dried ... it took me all day to fold it (& they weren't large loads, either). 

By the end of the night, I was BEAT!! I didn't have the energy to put myself to bed, much less 2 tired, getting sick kids. Well, Roman was whining to be about something (& it was the really pathetic, annoying, crying whining) & I said to him, "Just a minute, Roman. Let me finish putting away the laundry." His response was, "Oh! Ok, I help you!" and totally snapped out of his hissy fit. He helped me put all the clothes away, clean off the table, & load the dishwasher. I can't tell you how thankful I was not only for his willingness to help, but that I didn't have to clean with a crying toddler at my heels!! Then, as I was putting Sterling to bed I started to sing "I am a Child of God" and Roman totally sang, word for word, along with me- He has never done that before and it was the sweetest, cutest, most heart warming experience! I totally had tears (happy ones) running down my cheeks and said to him, "Romey, I didn't even know you knew that song." and he said back, "Yeah, Mommy, I knows that song. It's child of God. I like it!"

I'm so thankful for the sweet little reminder I received tonight, letting me know that life isn't THAT bad, and that all the work I'm doing as a mother, trying to teach him, isn't just going in one ear & out the other!!

SpRiNg BrEaK!!

This week has been spring break & even though I didn't get to do a lot of what I was wanting/planning to do (ie. sit on a beach somewhere/clean out my closet & pantry) I still had some fun! Here's a little recap of my break.

I crafted, for the 1st time in way too long!! This is my new favorite head band!

 We went to the zoo. twice!

It was pretty crowded the 1st time we went, but still fun!

Enjoyed some simple things like...

Making brownies

Discovering reflections

 Had several dance parties to THIS song

Roman has some pretty sweet moves ;)

 Watched my favorite boys in the world bond & play

ahhh, don't they just make your heart melt?! They do mine!

 Celebrated my 28th birthday!

The house was packed with my family, but it was SO fun!!

Anthon got me the most AMAZING cake!! It's the strawberry ice cream cake from Cold Stone... try it. Your life will never be the same!

 & did some not-so-spring cleaning! Let me explain... I made the mistake of leaving my delicious chocolate macadamia nuts out that my cousin brought back from Hawaii for me. While I was in the shower, Mr. Sterling devoured them & smeared chocolate all over himself & the carpet!

Ugh, such a little stink... but come on! How cute is he?!

 Thankfully, my friend let me use her carpet steam cleaner, so our floors will look good as new :)

He wasn't happy with me when I took the chocolate away!!

We, also, went swimming one day (which I'm totally bummed I didn't take any pictures of! Then, today I spent the majority of the day at the ER with my mom :( Poor lady! Seems like she's been sick since October & can never quite get over it. Thankfully they admitted her & hopefully they can figure out what the heck is going on & get her back to feeling better soon! Last but not least, Anthon & I went on a date to Studio Movie Grill tonight, ate some super yummy food while watching "This Means War", & laughed ourselves sick! Seriously, I was crying! It felt good to have a good laugh & spend the evening out together!

We don't really have anything else planned for the last 2 days of our spring break- other than teaching my first Sunday school lesson! I was released from being 2nd counselor in the Relief Society last Sunday (I was that for the last 3 years) & got called to teach the 12 & 13 year olds... I'm pretty excited. Think it will be a lot of fun, so wish me luck :)

Finding Joy in my Journey

I gave the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday, & for selfish reasons I chose to use President Monson's talk "Finding Joy in the Journey" as my topic. I needed the reminder to enjoy the here & NOW, to stop waiting for that "nonexistent future" when I'll have all the time to do everything I want to do, and to find joy everyday in my life- even the hard days! I have to look past all the obstacles & find the good, becasue I know it's there! I've felt so blessed since I started preparing the lesson & reminding myself that these experiences I'm having each day are only temporary- before I know it they will be gone & I may even miss them! I've been finding the joy in my daily, no where near where I'm wanting to be, imperfect life & it feels wonderful to have gratitude in my heart again for the little  simple things!!
Today has been a hard day. Probably the hardest day since the surgery. Sterling go this catheter out this morning & has been screaming the entire time he's been awake pretty much ever since. However, I get to be HERE with him, holding him, kissing away his tears, comforting him... that brings me joy. He turned 10 months old today, & his short little life has FLOWN by, so I'm sure that the time will come that I will look back and miss the days when he was little, sick, & wanted nothing more than for me to hold him! Since I'm limited on what I can do with a crying baby in my arms, I got to sit & enjoy a show with Roman. We were watching Veggie Tales & out of no where, he reaches over and holds my free hand :). A few minutes later, he points to the daddy broccoli on the TV and states, "That's not my daddy. My dad is not a tree."... I laughed out loud! The whole experience with him brought me joy! He has been exceptionally difficult lately (& I'm sure it has everything to do with 1) Being a 3 year old boy, 2) How stressed out/tense I've been lately, & 3) All the attention we've been showing toward Sterling), so it was so nice to reconnect with me sweet, darling, hilarious Roman Boy!
Something else that brought me joy today was receiving a placement letter from Maricopa Community Colleges... After waiting for 2 years I HAVE BEEN PLACED & WILL BE STARTING NURSING SCHOOL THIS FALL!!!! WHOOO HOOO!! I'm soo exciting to start progressing toward my goal again! I was placed at Chandler Gilbert, and even though I wasn't expecting to go there, I feel really good/excited about it! I know the road ahead is going to be tough at times, but with my refined hope, faith, & positive outlook I know I can do it!! The journey will be hard, but I know I can/will find the joy in it :')

Not as Bad as We Thought

Well, we've survived the week I've been dreading- the week of my wisdom tooth getting pulled & Sterling's surgery. My tooth thing... not even a big deal. My new dentist is AH-MAZING! It, honestly, was the most pleasant dental experience of my life. I had to take a test for my statistics class right after getting my tooth pulled & I didn't have any pain at all... until I got home & the Novocaine wore off. Then, I was wishing I was dead! Thankfully, my angelic mother-in-law stayed with us for the week & she took care of the boys, housework, food & sent me to bed. After I woke up- & took a vicodin ;) - it didn't really hurt again.

The next day was Sterling's surgery to correct his hypospadias. It was SOOO much better than I was anticipating. Anthon gave Sterling a blessing that morning, & I felt totally at peace the entire day! We had to wait about an hour longer to go back into pre-op area because the urologist's 1st baby of the day took longer than he anticipated, but we didn't really mind (because if it were our baby he was working on, we'd want him to take all the time he needed)! Once we went back into the pre-op area they had us change him into his little gown & the surgeon, anesthesiologist, & surgical nurses came to talk to us.

 I had been DREADING handing him over to go back to the operating room but when the time came I was totally calm, Sterling was happy to go with them in their toasty warm blankets, & it was all good! The Dr. worked on him for 2 hours, & in the meantime Anthon did homework & I prepared my relief society lesson. Once it was over, the Dr. came out & told us everything went perfectly.

We were able to go back into recovery & they brought Sterling back to us. Man, he was PISSED when he woke up! The anesthesia made him throw up & they did a sacral spinal block (kinda like an epidural, only lower on his back/ top of butt), so he couldn't move or feel his legs & I'm pretty sure he wasn't happy about that. Once I got to nurse him he totally calmed down & went back to sleep (poor kid hadn't eaten since like 6am & he got out of surgery around 2pm)!!

 We brought him home that afternoon & he's been sooo easy I can hardly believe it! He has to wear a catheter until Tuesday & that's pretty much been the source of his meltdowns (ei. If he accidentally tugs on it while we're changing his diaper, or steps on it while he's getting his sponge bath). That & taking his medications- he HATES them!! & he has 4 different ones to take (1 for bladder spasms, 1 for pain, 1 for reflux, & an antibiotic so he doesn't get a UTI) & it's a fight every time to get them down. I CAN NOT WAIT for that thing to come out... neither can he, I bet!! He's only had a few melt downs, but I was anticipating a constant whining, crying, clingy, grouchy baby & he's just not... (I'm pretty sure Roman has cried/ had more melt downs than Sterling this week)!

This was the 1st night after the surgery

& this was him today... looks about the same, aye?!

 Having Anthon's mom here was SOOO nice! The woman is a saint! She is so sweet, patient, & helpful! Roman was a TERROR while she was here & she acted like she didn't even notice. On top of taking care of "the beast", she fixed meals for us, did our laundry, kept our house clean, & picked up our slack in a lot of other areas. I seriously, don't think this experience would have been so easy if it weren't for her help...Eileen, you're the BEST! We're SO thankful for you & we love you! We've truly been blessed throughout this whole experience, & I know it's because of the kindness of others and the powers of the Priesthood & prayer!! I'm so glad to have the surgery behind us and so thankful that Sterling's done so well! Thank you all for your concern & prayers... we have definitely felt it & benefited because of it!